Sustaining the High Note: Music Exec Sydney Margetson Rocks His 25-Year Career at Atlantic Records and Says #BlackPublicistsMatter
by Christy DeBoe Hicks
“People who make it to the top — whether they’re musicians, or great chefs, or corporate honchos — are addicted to their calling … [they] are the ones who would be doing what they love, even if they weren’t being paid.” Quincy Jones
Sydney Margetson loves what he does. Moreover, he loves where he does it. In an industry known for staff mobility among various record companies, he has risen to his position as senior vice president of publicity for Atlantic Records by sticking with the label that first hired him more than two decades ago. Margetson has led change at the record company by increasing its presence and competency in the digital space — often against powerful resistance — and was part of the effort to upgrade the status of urban music at Atlantic. He provides the same energy and commitment to young, new artists as he does to his established, award-winning musicians.
He maintains a roster of musicians. This list currently includes Cordae, Wiz Khalifa, Kehlani, YBN Nahmir, Ayanis, Raiche, Kevin Gates, Trey Songz, O.T. Genasis, Kranium, and many more. His roster has also included established artists such as Grammy Award winners T.I., Lupe Fiasco, and Sean Paul, to name a few.
“Titles are words, I’m a publicist, period,” he states. “I have artists, I have albums, and I still do all the calls and the meetings, and I still pitch. I’m in the trenches daily.”
One of his specialties is helping new artists succeed. He both leads and supports his artists through the highs and lows of their music careers.
Many of his artists have received American Music Awards, Billboard Awards, BET Music Awards, NAACP Image Awards, and Soul Train Awards, among others. Their recordings have earned top spots on Billboard charts, and their sales have reached gold and platinum levels.
Margetson believes his job is his calling, and it never gets old or routine. Every morning, as soon as he wakes up, he checks the news, the internet, and social media to see if something is bubbling up that would make him rethink a promotional plan or create a new one. One of his keys to success in this business is his determination to stay ahead of the game.
Family First: Raise to Succeed in Work and Life
Margetson was born in Queens, New York, and raised in Hempstead, Long Island, with his older brother, Nigel. His parents, Sydney and Christine Margetson immigrated to the United States from the Caribbean island of St. Kitts to “give us a better life,” says Margetson. His father worked for the Long Island Railroad and his mother was a patient care assistant. His parents’ ethics about life and work shaped his views about both.
“My parents instilled in me a no-nonsense drive to be a success in life,” he says. “And watching them come to this country, get jobs — sometimes two — and build a home for our family inspires me. They did all of this together, and they are still married after sixty-five years. They are my role models.”
When the Margetsons moved from Queens to Hempstead, the boys were among the first Black kids in the neighborhood and the school system. “My parents wanted to give us this opportunity, and they expected us to take full advantage of it,” he recalls.
Margetson says his brother, Nigel Margetson, who is five years older, was also his role model. “I wanted to be like him,” he recalls. “I watched what he did, how he moved, and I wanted to copy those things, even though we were totally different.” Nigel was the athlete of the family, winning a basketball scholarship to attend Pace University in New York City, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting. He is now a vice president and senior trader for HSBC, a private bank.
Sydney Margetson eschewed the hard benches and bright lights of the basketball court and instead found contentment in the low lights and cushioned seats of movie theaters. He found ways to see so many movies that friends and family gave him the nickname “At the Movies,” named for the popular film review series At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. His favorite genre was horror films. What attracted him to the genre?
“My parents watched a lot of horror movies, they were into them, and I would watch with them,” he reminisces. “Those movies scared the hell out of me, but I liked them.” He was also a big fan of sci-fi and superhero movies. But no matter the genre, Margetson was fully committed to supporting Black actors and Black films, even at a young age. “I’m such a Black film and television geek that if Black people are in it, I’m going to watch it, period,” he states. “I watch everything, Black. That’s just who I am. I don’t care if it’s cheesy or whack; I’m going to watch it.”
At a young age, Margetson developed a hobby that would foretell his future career. He was fascinated with live musical performances on television, but he was just as interested in the interview with the artists that often accompanied those performances. He would videotape them to review them later. “When musicians came on the Apollo, I would pull out the VHS tape,” he says. “When the performers would start talking to Don Cornelius on Soul Train, I would push the record button.” He continued to make those recordings for years, even as technology changed from tapes to DVDs. He reveals he still has boxes of those tapes and DVDs stored in his parents’ basement.
For as far back as he could remember, Margetson loved music, movies, and the creative arts. He was also interested in publicity, but he did not yet know the name for those activities. However, when it was time to apply for college, he followed in his brother’s footsteps and chose to pursue a business degree. Margetson had grown up in a predominately white neighborhood and attended predominately white schools. He applied to historically Black colleges, and was accepted to Howard University, and headed for Washington, D.C., to pursue a degree in finance.
Moving to His Own Beat Led Him to the Music Business
At Howard, Margetson would face the fact that he was not cut out for the business and finance path that his brother was successfully following. “My friends told me that I should transfer from the School of Business to the School of Communications,” he says.
While at Howard, Margetson became interested in the music industry and got a summer internship at Mercury Records. The following summer, he worked for Def Jam, both in New York City.
The summer internships offered him the opportunity to explore various aspects of the music business. Still, he never connected to the publicity department, which would soon become the area of the music business where he would build his career. “I worked for three months each at those two companies. I interned in sales, retail, radio promotions, video promotion, and street promotion, but I never applied to work in publicity because I didn’t know what it was,” he says. Working in publicity was exactly what Margetson wanted to do. He could articulate it, but he couldn’t name it.
During one of his internships, he told people about his music industry dreams: “I want to influence the artists before they meet the public. I want to be able to talk to them and give them my marketing ideas. Or, if they’re about to be interviewed in the media, I want to prepare them.” He recalls that he said, “I don’t know what it’s called, but that’s what I want to do.” He would not have to wait long before he learned what it was called, how to do it, and that he excelled at it.
After his summer internship with Mercury Records, Margetson had the opportunity to continue working with the label under Wanda Hayes, the Mid-Atlantic regional promotions manager for Mercury. While at Howard, he also was an intern for PolyGram, did street promotions for Columbia/SONY, and served as a college representative for BMG.
Hayes was impressed with Margetson from the beginning. “I credit Sydney with singlehandedly breaking Mercury recording artist Joe in Washington, D.C., weeks before the release of Joe’s 1993 hit ‘Everything.’ Sydney put a street team together and flooded Howard University with signs that simply read, ‘JOE’ in big, bold letters. Students on campus woke every morning with a flyer under their door. By the time I started the promotional tour in the area, people wanted to know ‘Who Is Joe?’ It was an invigorating experience to work with Sydney, but more importantly, I witnessed a star being born; the student has become the master,” declares Hayes, who is currently the Elder and Church Administrator at Christ Kingdom Church in District Heights, Maryland.
Roceania Williams, who had supervised Margetson in his summer internship at Mercury Records, moved to Atlantic Records and was soon promoted. She suggested that he apply for the publicity assistant job she was vacating. Her one piece of advice to him in putting together his application was this: “be creative.”
“I can remember always encouraging Sydney to work as if he was about to take my job,” says Roceania Williams, who is currently CEO of GospelRhythms. “He was and still is so adept to handle whatever challenges, obstacles, and problems arise his way. He is focused and committed, not just to his artistry in overseeing communication, but to live with excellence and balance.”
His lifetime of training to be the best and be a success, and his need to find a way to stand out, left him with only one choice: Be the most creative he could be. He cut no corners, enlisting his friends from Howard to help him deliver an incredibly creative application package. He converted his resume into a five-by-ten flyer that included a professional photo. He produced a demo with a person reciting his resume as a spoken-word piece over a beat and a girl singing a hook. The wow factor got him the job as a media and artist relations assistant. He started at the end of 1996 and finally learned the name he had been seeking: Publicity. He had found his sweet spot. He performed his job with the same dedication and creativity that he had put into getting the job, which facilitated his meteoric rise at the music label. He was promoted to coordinator in 1997, after one year on the job, and to director in 1999. He was named vice president in 2010, and senior vice president in 2019.
“Sydney was an excellent addition to the department because he was an enthusiastic team player who was honestly interested in a career in music publicity,” says Chrissy Murray, former head of Atlantic Records’ Urban Publicity & Artist Development department, who was one of the top and most well-respected African American music publicists and executives in the industry. She now runs Homegirl by CRM, a web lifestyle website for women aged 45 to 70. “He held me down so I could be the best at doing my job. When he was promoted to a publicist, he took off with his own projects — exercising, honing, and broadening his PR skills. He worked hard making relatively unknown artists into stars and contributed to millions of records sales.”
Deciding to take the job was not the slam-dunk it appeared to be. It meant leaving Howard without a degree, which he feared would disappoint his parents and brother. “I made a list of pros and cons,” he says, “I concluded that my purpose for going to college was to prepare to get a job and find out who I am. I’ve checked these boxes, and I’m ready to leave. I’ve gotten everything I can get out of this experience.”
He called his parents to tell them that he was leaving school, and they were supportive of his decision, “I was shocked,” he says. “They told me I should do what I felt I wanted to do and that I could come home.”
Reaching the Top and Leaving No One Behind
In 1996, when Margetson started at Atlantic Records, for the first time in the U.S., people sent more emails than postal mail. The World Wide Web was becoming an ever-increasing part of our lives, work, and entertainment. Margetson understood that music companies would have to move into the digital space to ensure long-term competitiveness and success. Still, his boss had him walking memos from office to office rather than using email, so he tucked his internet ambitions away. He focused on performing tasks assigned to him and learning everything he could about music publicity. Eventually, a persistent Margetson would have the opportunity not only to have input about the use of digital space in the urban music section of the company but also, he would get to lead its digital activities.
While Margetson was good at understanding how to support publicity efforts with online resources, his people skills, flexibility, creativity and resolve to keep current and stay relevant have been the fundamental elements of his success. He strongly believes in communicating with his clients, coworkers, media contacts, and others through meetings or phone calls and not solely through email and text. However, this is increasingly difficult to do.
“Everything is texts and emails these days, especially with the younger generation; they don’t like to talk,” he says. “I’m from a generation where we get on the phone, and we talk.” He says it’s especially difficult to effectively communicate by text or email when he interacts with someone for the first time. “I can’t get to know who you are by a text and an email. It’s cut and dry, and things can be misconstrued if you make a joke or a comment. There are no nuances. I need to know who you are, your quirks, your sense of humor, your intensity. You don’t get that in an email, and that’s a challenge for me.”
Despite the challenges, Margetson loves dealing with his roster. He still vividly remembers two of the more significant Grammy experiences in his career. His first time on the red carpet at the Grammy Awards was in 2008. He was with Nappy Roots, his first group to go platinum and “crossover” into the mainstream. “I was scared as hell,” he recalls. The Grammy Awards were at New York City’s Madison Square Garden that year. “The red carpet wasn’t a straight line, so you couldn’t just look down and see what was ahead of you. So, I’m on the carpet for the first time with the group of six plus their manager. My job was to get journalists to interview them. I had to fight my way through, and it was overwhelming and scary. It was everything all at once. I had to try and push them into the interview while making sure they didn’t roam or turn their heads. It was an adventure I will never forget, but I was scared to death.”
Another memorable awards show experience was the 2009 Grammy Awards with T.I., with whom he worked for the artist’s run at Atlantic, 2003–2012. T.I.’s Grammy win was for his performance of the song “Swagga Like Us” featuring Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, and Kanye West, which they performed live that night. “It wasn’t his first Grammy win, but it is memorable when your artist is competing and winning big,” Margetson says. T.I. won several other awards that year, including a BET Hip Hop Award for CD of the Year and the Billboard Award for R&B/Hip Hop Male Artist of the Decade. The hype around T.I. was big for Margetson, too. “Everything shifts when your artist wins big,” he says. “You become the ‘It’ publicist, and suddenly everybody wants to talk to you, and everyone accepts your phone calls and responds to your emails,” he acknowledges.
#BlackPublicistsMatter
Margetson has enjoyed enormous success at Atlantic Records, but that has not shielded him from the subtle racism that runs through the industry. One constant challenge for Black publicists, he says, is that many working in the industry tend to view them “in a very limited way,” he says. “It’s an ongoing thing where we have to prove ourselves constantly in anything we do,” he says.
“Too many people automatically think that a Black publicist can only do Black media. I am Black, but I like everything. I’m able to communicate, pitch, and persuade all media in all genres. I am not just a publicist for Black media outlets,” he states. “We constantly have to remind clients and artists that we do it all.” However, he notes, “If our white counterparts have an interest in urban music, it’s automatically assumed that they can do it all. But music is music, and publicity is publicity.”
Pandemic, Protest, and Promise
There is no upside to the COVID-19 pandemic, but its effect on the music business has been a mixed bag. As the pandemic has kept us in our homes, away from our friends, family, and jobs, people have a growing need to escape from their suddenly solitary reality. “One thing we found within this pandemic is people need entertainment and music,” says Margetson. “So, we are busier than we were pre-pandemic because people want music, and they’re digesting it at a much faster pace. We put something out, and people consume it and come back saying, ‘Okay, what else you got?’ and we have to produce.” With people working remotely, that process has been complicated as well.
A more difficult problem caused by the pandemic is that artists cannot tour to promote their music. “Artists can’t do multi-city concert runs, make live appearances on local radio and television, do in-person meet and greets with their fans — all of that stopped. So, we had to figure out new, creative ways to promote new music without these tools,” he says. Digital space was the answer, and in many ways, it has worked.
While America was grappling with life in a pandemic, several police shootings brought protesters pouring into the streets. The protests engendered a new reckoning with racial injustice, policing, inequality, and other critical issues, all against the background of a fraught presidential election that brought us to the edge of a constitutional crisis. The civil unrest affected the music industry in several ways. First, many artists wanted to create music as a soundtrack for the movement. It is a tradition in this country that dates back to the abolitionist, civil rights, suffragettes, women’s rights, LGBT rights, and anti-war protests of the past. And Margetson says this new generation needs to be guided and supported in their efforts. He also believes the protests and the Black Lives Matter movement have resulted in “a serious conversation about inclusivity” and “having a seat at the table” within the music industry. “It was tragic that George Floyd’s death had to spark it, but I think it was for a purpose because now we’ve developed different Black coalitions and committees to address every single one of our needs. In my entire career, that’s never existed,” he says.
Margetson also states that artists and labels need to be sensitive to the country’s mood when planning their releases and other activities. “If the nation is not doing well, you can’t pop bottles and party. Because that’s not the overall sentiment of what’s going on,” he says. “Yes, we need that, but there’s a time and place for that. Now, we’ve loosened up a bit, and people want to have more fun so that material is coming back more, but everything we do should reflect where we are as a country, as a world.”
A Little Help from His Friends
Margetson credits his success in the industry and at Atlantic Records to four women who helped, hired, and mentored him. Roceania Williams supervised his internship at Mercury Records and then encouraged him to apply for the position at Atlantic Records that she was leaving because of a new opportunity; Chrissy Murray hired him as her assistant in his first job at Atlantic Records; Sharon Washington, the other senior publicist in the Urban Publicity and Artist Development department, helped him learn the ropes; and Wanda Hayes, the regional promotions director for Mercury Records in the Mid-Atlantic area oversaw his internship in the Washington, D.C., area.
Hayes was in-charge of all the radio stations within the Mid-Atlantic radio market. She gave Margetson five stations in the Washington, D.C. area to work. “She mentored me on how to do the radio job and gave me my first sense of autonomy,” he says.
The admiration was mutual. “At the mention of the name, Sydney Margetson, I would drop everything to take a call, text, or email,” she states. “I tell you, it was one of the highlights of my forty-four-year entertainment industry career to work with and mentor Sydney. I considered Sydney more than my intern; he was my partner [in crime].”
Margetson says he learned so much from these women about various aspects of the record industry, especially music publicity skills. They also reinforced in him a strong work ethic and an attitude for success. “I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have these strong Black women nurture me,” he says.
Murray is proud of the career and life that Margetson built over the past two decades. “After twenty-plus years at Atlantic and his promotion to senior vice president, I am most proud that he’s done this while putting his health and happiness first and is always reaching back to bring along and teach the next generation of music execs.”
Margetson is committed to paying it forward. “I see myself as a mentor,” he says, noting that he currently is mentoring two people within the business that he checks in with regularly. “A lot of the people who have come up underneath me have excelled,” he says. “Publicists for Cardi B, Meek Mill, and Ty Dolla were my assistants. Four of my former assistants — Ashley Kalmanowitz, Jason Davis, Ariana White, and Selam Belay — are now superstar publicists at Atlantic. I was fortunate to be able to work with them,” he says. “Even when I do staff check-ins, I don’t just want to know about their artists and their work. I want to know what’s going on with them and how they are feeling. I want to give back more. I want to do more and do community work on a higher level.” His parents raised him to understand the importance of community, and that is one path he wants to follow.
Margetson Keeps His Eyes on the Stars but His Feet on the Ground
When Margetson isn’t pitching, prepping clients, reassuring artists, mentoring younger staff members, coming up with new visions for campaigns, making new plans, and running his department, he does things that take him outside of his day-to-day routine. “I’ve turned into a health freak,” he exclaims. “I was an overweight kid, and I didn’t play sports or do any activities. When I hit [age] 40, I began to combat health issues and started to lead a healthier lifestyle,” he says. His fitness activities include running marathons. His first one was in 2013, in the 20th Annual Philadelphia Marathon, which is a half-marathon (13 .1 miles). After the run, Derrick Sampson and Dyana Williams, who then worked for Radio One’s 100.3 WRNB-FM, caught up with Margetson to ask him how he felt about running in his first marathon (he loved it). During their conversation, he revealed that in 2011 his doctors told him that he needed to lose weight, or he was headed for a heart attack or a stroke. That was his motivation to change his lifestyle. “I started walking and riding a bike and it just evolved and I started running in June [2012],” he told them. “I do whatever I can to be healthy,” he says. Margetson has run ten marathons, including two New York City marathons.
“I am so very proud of all that Sydney has accomplished,” says Roceania Williams. “And for me to have had a ride on part of his journey, is not only one of my proudest moments but most inspiring moments. I may not have to complete a marathon in every state on my bucket list, but Sydney has inspired me to be reminded that with focus and commitment, the journey can be fun, and life can truly be a masterpiece.”
Margetson keeps his professional life and his personal life separate when possible. “There are those I connect with on social media who think I’m a personal trainer or runner,” he says. “They don’t know that I work in the music business.” He doesn’t put his job title on his personal social media channels to help keep them separate.
The marathon-running music industry veteran hasn’t left all of his old pleasures behind. He holds on to his “At the Movies” title and still loves horror films. His all-time favorite in the genre remains Halloween.
Margetson is constantly reinventing himself as he pushes Atlantic Records and helps his artists to meet the challenges of changing audiences, changing technology, and a changing world. Margetson’s position at Atlantic is not just a job he loves; it is a creative platform for having his say in the music industry and the world. It is his megaphone for sharing his perspective, which he encapsulates in the hashtag: #BLACKPUBLICISTSMATTER.
Christy DeBoe Hicks is a communications consultant, writer, and editor with more than 30 years of experience working with policy, nonprofit, education, and community organizations, as well as in the music, theater, and publishing fields. After a hiatus, she has returned as a regular contributor to Global Communicator.
